Which to use
“musket” and “muster” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,931
- “musket” frequency rank
- #16,757
- “muster” frequency rank
- 49688
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | musket | muster |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A kind of firearm formerly carried by the infantry of an army, originally fired by means of a match, or matchlock, for which several mechanical appliances (including the flintlock, and finally the percussion lock) were successively substituted; ultimately superseded by the rifle. | A gathering. |
Where the eye mixes musket and muster
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: musket vs muster
A purely visual mix-up. musket (/ˈmʌskət/) and muster (/ˈmʌs.tə/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49688, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
musket is recorded at frequency rank #32,931, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmʌskət/. muster is at rank #16,757, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmʌs.tə/.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 49688, this pair ranks #181,269 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of musket vs muster
Shared letters: emstu. Private to "musket": k. Private to "muster": r.
"musket" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "muster" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "musket" for "muster" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "musket" or "muster" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "musket" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "muster" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #181,269 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "musket" and "muster" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "musket vs mussel". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #181,269 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.